The Wolf family of musical instrument makers
flourished for over a century in Prague, Bohemia
(now Czech Republic) across three generations.
August Wolf (1793 - 1874) was trained as a
brass instrument maker in Graslitz. He established
himself in Prague in 1821 and was granted
trading rights there in 1828. There is a horn in
Hudebni Oddeleni Narodniho Muzea, Praha, Czech
Republic and a trumpet in Musikinstrumenten-Museum der
Karl-Marx-Universitat, Leipzig, Germany. In 1867, his
son, Josef became his successor.

Josef Wolf,
apprenticed with his father, August Wolf
establishing his own workshop in Prague in 1848.
Upon his father's retirement in 1867, Josef
amalgamated both workshops into a single factory for
all kinds of musical instruments, trading as "Wolf
& Sohn". There is a clarinet in Stredni Prumyslova
Skola Vroby Hudebnich Nastroju, Kraslice, Czech
Republic. In 1899 his son, August Josef Wolf, became
successor.

August Josef Wolf (19 August 1852 - 1924)
apprenticed with his father, Josef Wolf. In 1898/99 he
took over the family business making all kinds of
musical instruments including string instruments and
accordions. He was succeeded by his widow in 1924 who
continued the business until 1929.

The arrangement of rotary valves in a
triangular pattern was not uncommon among horn makers
in Bohemia and the vicinity of Vienna as an
alternative to the Vienese
pumpen valves. This innovation was no doubt an
attempt to reduce the "acoustic resistance" due to the
sharp angles of tubing found in the valve clusters of
the Vienna horn and in-line rotary valves. Other
examples of triangular valve arrangement are known by
Josef
Müller, Prague; Leopold Uhlmann, Jr., Vienna;
Josef Glassl, Graslitz; Jos. Fotter, Mladá Boleslav,
Bohemia, Friedrich
Gessner, and Anton Holý. The modern Czech firm,
M.Jiracek
a Synove, makes a similar Double Horn (Model
Nr.101 "Supin") in F and B♭ with four rotary
valves arranged in a square. "This unique design
allows the airstream to pass through the valves
unidirectionally - with acoustic resistance reduced
incredibly."

The subject horn probably dates from sometime
before August Josef Wolf became a partner with his
father (1867) since it is not engraved as "Wolf and
Sohn." It has several interesting features: The bell
flare is a separate piece attached to the bell tail
with a large ferrule (see the photos at the top of the
page). The tail itself is somewhat longer than on most
horns. The crook socket (photo right) is marked
with the letter "B" for no apparent reason. A first
thought might be that the horn is intended to be
crooked in B♭ (B in German notaion),
however the valve slides are clearly too long for that
key. (No crook was included with the horn and it is
too severely damaged to even try to play.)

One of the valve caps is ornately decorated while the
other two are quite plain (below). It is assumed that
the decorated one is a replacement.

The valve slides and tubes are marked with arrows (bottom
photo) showing the correct orientation of the slides as
set at the factory.

The horn player shown at right was a member
of the Molé
Chamber Music Club in Boston. He is probably Franz
Hain who succeeded Albert
Hackebarth as the Club's horn player, and is
holding a triangluar pattern single horn very similar
to the subject horn by Josef Wolf.

Acknowledgments

Notes

References

Waterhouse, William, The New Langwill Index of
Wind Instrument Makers and Inventors, pub.Tony Bingham,
London 1993